Name:	FlyGuy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/10/2016 12:35:57 AM

Hey guys, new to the forum.  Entering my fourth year on the lake, and, as my alias reads, I'm not the avg fisherman on Martin.  I fly fish exclusively, targeting spots and stripers in the shallows.  I have an all white flats boat.  I don't fish much under 12 feet.  I'll let you know what I see and where, and if you see me, come by and say hello.  I appreciate what's on the forum here.

Tight Lines Guys

Name:	HARRY -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/10/2016 4:42:53 PM

Sounds like fun. Cool boat too. Welcome.

Name:	Aardvark -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/10/2016 5:31:12 PM

I read a lot about fly fishing for stripes and spots on Lake Lanier, and we need someone on Lake Martin that can become our version of Henry Cowen.

Name:	Ahluring Angler -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/11/2016 10:42:15 AM

Welcome, is there a part of the lake you primarily focus or fish all over that we can stop and say hello if we run accross each other. Are you seeing many fish shallow this time of year

Name:	FlyGuy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/11/2016 11:32:54 AM

Cowen and the 80+ pound stripers on Lanier are legendary.  I primarily fish the north shore from the 63 bridge to the Ridge Marina, and, up until last week was landing good numbers of spots chasing baitballs topwater (all within 150 feet of shore), and an occasional small line side thrown in.  On Lanier there are about 20 boats that make a living chasing gulls and slicks from Jan to March, and we have Hooch stripers in the river in Atlanta that get up to about 25lbs.  Haven't moved north of the Ridge simply because I don't know the water, but plan to this year.  I know fly fishing, but I don't really know the lake at all north of the Ridge.  Need help and guidance there.  Tie most of my own flies, and spend equal time in the Gulf chasing saltwater largemouth they call snook.  Below are a couple flies that were snagging spots.  Thanks for the welcome.

Name:	Aardvark -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/12/2016 11:39:17 PM

As far as I can tell, striper fishing on Martin is mainly confined to deep trolling.  Not much is said about the topwater bite, but I don't know if that is because few people pursue it or those that do are very tight lipped.  I have a friend who was catching stripes in shallower water near Still Waters when nobody could catch anything deep with dynamite.  My brother insists that he has caught big stripes way up Little Kowaliga.  When I posted a picture on Facebook of some people fishing near the middle about a mile upstream of Real Island, he said that was where he caught them.  Other than that, upriver close to Alex City gets a lot of mentions here, as do Pleasure Point, near The Rock, under the power lines power lines by The Ridge, and around the Kowaliga Bridge.  The only place I have ever caught a decent sized striper was in The Narrows.  They run upriver in the spring and try to spawn, but be careful with a boat because it gets very shallow up that way, especially when the water is down.  I know that this is generalized, but it might help[ you narrow down your search.

Name:	FlyGuy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member
Date:	12/13/2016 1:12:49 AM

Thanks Ardvark. Not sure why the top water bite would differ significantly from lanier, but perhaps it does.  I can tell you that I'll be chasing that bite, hope it comes.  I have my home near Kowaliga, and I see those boats in those exact spots, and I think you're right, they know something, but not talking.  My boat weighs 500 lbs wet, with a tunnel hull, made to do 20 knots in 7 inches of water...but yeah, not that dumb.  I do look forward to taking it upriver this spring.  Thanks again.  Good group here.

Name:	John C -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/13/2016 4:59:23 PM

Hey FlyGuy, it's great to have you as a new member. I love your boat and one of these days would love to have one just like it! Also great to hear of another person trying to figure out stripes on the fly rod. 

Over the years I have been researching this whole issue. I agree with you that our fishing should be similar to Lanier. In fact, this time last year I went and fished with Henry Cowen for that very reason- to try and learn lessons to apply here. I need to write up the lessons of that trip in a blog post. But bottom line what Henry said was to find the bait and you will find the stripes. Whether the bait is shallow in Kowaliga Bay, deep in Kowaliga, shallow upriver, whereever. Follow the bait no matter the season. This necessitates a lot of running and gunning looking for them. His advice also was to talk to the bait fishermen to see: a.) where they are and b.) how deep they are, and translate to fly fishing in the appropriate manner.

As to people not fishing on top water here, that's not accurate in my opinion. I can say from experience with David Hare (Alex City guide service) that he fishes a ton on top. This time of year he pretty much exclusively trolls with live bait that is on planer boards, on top. He does that until the thermocline turns over in the warmer weather.

Here are links to a 3 part series I did, asking David about striped bass on Lake Martin in general:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjzJUoR02PM

http://lakemartinvoice.com/2012/12/13/in-search-of-striped-bass-on-lake-martin-part-2/

http://lakemartinvoice.com/2012/12/20/in-search-of-striped-bass-on-lake-martin-part-3/

at the risk of throwing too much info at you, here's another really good resource. In the last year I have met and fished with Drew Morgan. He is a fly fishing guide that mostly floats the Tallapoosa, just above Lake Martin. He's on this forum, I think his alias is Fly Fishing Guy.  his website is: https://www.eastalabamaflyfishing.com/

and I recently wrote about a trip here:

http://lakemartinvoice.com/2016/12/13/fishing-on-the-tallapoosa-river/

Drew's a super nice guy and great guide. We are teaming up for a fly fishing (and spin if you want) tournament in the spring. Stay tuned.

Here's another post I did w my general setup :

http://lakemartinvoice.com/2015/03/17/how-to-catch-striped-bass-on-a-paddle-board/

I'd love to meet up with you some day and swap notes.

Name:	FlyGuy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/16/2016 5:32:29 PM

John, thanks for the info.  We had lunch 4 years ago at Kowaliga when my wife and I were looking at a house in Trillium and working with the other John C (you picked us up in the pontoon).  I went out the other day with Jim, and he showed me the nothern part of the lake above the Ridge.  Jim is an encyclopedia of knowledge about Martin, and I learned a lot, and hope to continue to into the future.  Thanks Jim!  In fact, we weren't a 1000ft from the dock in the first 5 minutes, he saw a baitball on my fishfinder, stopped the boat, jigged one of his spoons and boated a nice spot.  Took me a whole day the previous day to do as well.  Problem is, the baitballs appear locked in the thermoclines at least 20ft under the surface.  Jim has some great spoons, and I'm going to get some, but I'm thinking of tying some fast sinking flies.  Just not sure if jigging with a fly counts as on the fly (although I'm not sure who makes those rules anyway).  I've seen those videaos before with David, and they're great.  Thanks for the work in posting those.  A great group on this forum, and as we pass the knowledge around, hopefully more time catching and less time fishing. 

Name:	Fly Fishing Guy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/16/2016 6:10:06 PM (updated 12/16/2016 6:13:19 PM)

Welcome to he forum! It's nice to have another fly rodder around for sure. I've caught stripes on a fly rod in the Spring up in Irwin Shoals.  Let's go fish soon. John gave you my website, and my email is drewrmorgan@gmail.com.  Would be happy to share some local knowledge with you.

Name:	Aardvark -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/17/2016 12:18:01 AM

Considering that some of the hottest "flies" are made from googly ball tentacles, mops, and Zoom Flukes, a spoon is good enough.

As for the topwater bite, I think most people that fish on top are pretty tight lipped about it.  I do remember talking with some people many years ago that would fish topwater on long points in the Kowaliga area on cold winter mornings, but I could never manage a trip with them.

I am now saving my pennies for a float trip down the Tallapoosa above the lake.

Name:	Ahluring Angler -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/18/2016 9:50:28 AM

Thanks Bill, kind of a raw day for sightseeing, but any day on the water is a good one. Spoons are one of the tools of the trade we fishermen need to learn to be successful especially this time of the year. A major key is finding the fish with your electronics. Most fishermen spend way to much time and energy shallow. I have caught many more fish off structure in the last few years. There will always be a shallow bite but I seem to catch more numbers in a shorter period of time on the deep bite. Look forward to our next adventure.

Tight Lines

Ahluring Angler

Jim Laws

Name:	Aardvark -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/19/2016 4:46:15 PM

I love watching people fishing in front of our place.  Most of them hit the visible rocks on one point and maybe the neighbor's big dock, and then move to the point on the other side and fish near the bank.  None of them fish the deeper rocks offshore from the visible rocks, they completely miss the secondary point straight out from the dock, and they are oblivious to the rocks behind them on the other point.  If these people would use the electronics on their bass boats, they would see what they are missing.  If they would pay attention to the guy in the jonboat without a motor fishing several casts away from the shore, they should at least get curious as to why I am casting and catching in open water.  I know that Garmin was mapping the lake over the summer, so these spots are probably on their fishfinders.  Lowrance and Humminbird units either have built in maps or accept memory cards for map software, so if they have good electronics, they have access to this information.

Another thing you can do is use satellite views from Google Earth or Bing maps.  Currently on Bing, the west side, including my part of Little Kowaliga, has images shot at 480 winter pool.  Things most people don't know exist are clearly visible. Google is the same way for parts of the east side.  Print off some pictures and go exploring with your electronics and see what lives there.

The key thing to remember when fishing Martin is that it is a spotted bass lake, and spots prefer deep water, just like the stripers.  Electronics are a big help in fishing where the spots and stripers live, but knowledge of the lake can help you.  That is how I can push out a jonboat and fish in front of the cabin and catch fish in places most people don't even know about.

Name:	John C -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/20/2016 5:02:54 PM

ok now I know you!!!!!  

Name:	FlyGuy -	Reply
Subject:	New Member FlyGuy
Date:	12/20/2016 11:36:23 PM

Knew you would remember